Anchoring the metaphor of the MADWOMAN in this image of a madwoman sets me to second guessing. The embodiment of the divine in a vulnerable, raging, confused woman? Her breath and her body would smell foul. Her words would be nonsensical or at least out of context. What does she think? How does she feel?

The metaphor softens (romanticizes) the representation of her distress. But this image - where is the mystery? Where is the glory, the feminine, the secret knowing?

I can only imagine that these are the same kinds of questions that Jesus prompted. Consider some of the archetypal examples - befriending tax collectors and prostitutes, healing on the Sabbath, reaching out to the unclean, speaking in puzzling paradoxical parables. (He was maddening.) Then dying a criminal's death. It's offensive and blasphemous from a certain point of view.

So I think I'll continue on this quest to know God through or as the MADWOMAN. It challenges me to reexamine what I hold precious about the Divine. It invites me back to the text to remember the example and words of Jesus. It promises to reveal God newly, to reveal me before (or with?) God newly.